Morning Texts and the Mana Vessel
— Oppa, did you sleep well? ^^ I'm having breakfast right now.
Just as expected, Jo A-young sent me a text first thing in the morning. The casual content made it feel like we were dating or at least in that flirty phase. She'd even snapped a photo of her breakfast and sent it over. For the sister of Jo Dong-geun, Korea's number one hunter, it was surprisingly simple fare. The fact that it was Western-style instead of Korean was a fresh twist, though.
I'm eating breakfast right now.
[Photo: Simple Western breakfast]
"I lived abroad for so long that this sits better with my stomach in the mornings."
I'd heard the rough story from Kang A-jin. Jo Dong-geun and Jo A-young were orphans without parents. When she was very young, A-young had been adopted. After awakening, Dong-geun tracked her down—and in the process, killed her adoptive parents. I knew all that.
'A-young has no idea, of course.'
If she did, how could she even look him in the face? No matter how badly he wanted her by his side, killing her parents to drag her back wasn't normal. Before becoming a hunter, Dong-geun had psychopathic tendencies. Even without awakening and becoming invincible, he probably would've ended up committing crimes one way or another. The difference? As a regular person, he'd have faced proper punishment. Now, he lorded over the law itself.
— I just finished breakfast too.
I exchanged ordinary texts with A-young like nothing was wrong. Maybe it was because I'd already discussed her situation with the other three women and gotten their approval? A-jin had taken the lead, but I'd grown accustomed to this dynamic surprisingly fast. Without any hang-ups, it was a blessed life. Awakening as a hunter from an ordinary person was a total reversal on its own—but the women drawn to my Unreasonable Favor skill were all stunning and exceptional to boot.
After roughly agreeing on how to handle the Jo Dong-geun issue, the morning passed quietly. A-jin's house had a unique layout—bigger on the inside than it looked from outside. Just when you thought you'd seen it all, another room appeared, or hidden stairs revealed themselves. I suspected sorcery had warped the structure itself.
She called me aside alone.
"Sung-gi, could you come here for a moment?"
We headed to the basement where I'd taken sorcery lessons before. Sitting across the table, she said,
"Could you take that out?"
"That?"
"The talisman I gave you yesterday."
"Ah, right."
I pulled out the talisman infused with Park Hyun-jun's extracted mana. It looked unremarkable on the surface. But having watched it get made, it didn't seem ordinary to me at all.
"I'll help you extract the mana here. Not sure if it'll work, though."
She'd given me this while mentioning my unique trait—the ability to hold multiple types of mana in one body. She figured that let me absorb even Park Hyun-jun's mana. Worth a shot either way. Success meant gaining powerful mana and experience points. Failure would still teach me more about my abilities.
The ritual began. Even for A-jin, this was unfamiliar territory; she opened a book and chanted from it. After a few trial-and-error attempts, it finally activated. The talisman floated up from the table and slapped right onto the center of my chest. Light orbs burst out from inside, surging into me.
It felt like my body was inflating like a balloon. What was it? The mana wasn't absorbing properly—it was just swirling around inside. As more piled up without integrating, the pressure built.
"A-jin, this feels... kinda weird?"
Veins bulged under my skin. My heart felt like it might burst. Sensing real danger, A-jin switched chants. I couldn't make out the words, but it seemed like reversing the previous spell. Park Hyun-jun's mana flowed back out of me and into the talisman.
"Haa..."
Relief washed over me as the bursting sensation faded. I sighed deeply.
"Doesn't look like it'll work."
A-jin gave an ambiguous look.
"Seems like something's off with the sorcery."
"The sorcery?"
I'd assumed I just couldn't absorb Park Hyun-jun's mana outright. But she pointed to a technical issue.
"It's because I'm still lacking."
She said something I couldn't have imagined. I knew no one in Korea could match her sorcery skills. Even worldwide, few shamans could rival her. And considering how she'd subdued an S-rank like Park Hyun-jun despite the long prep and rare materials, this felt like false humility.
"If it were impossible, the mana wouldn't have even entered your body. The sorcery just had a flaw, preventing completion."
Meanwhile, I suspected the reason lay elsewhere. To keep her from going astray, I told her,
"The way I gain experience for growth is..."
Unlike other hunters, I didn't get much from slaying dungeon monsters. My main source was skinship with women exposed to Unreasonable Favor. Sure, dungeons gave some exp—but whether it matched normal hunters' gains was questionable. Skinship exp dwarfed it anyway. And that process also converted other hunters' mana into mine.
A-jin nodded thoughtfully at my explanation, as if a puzzle piece clicked.
"I see..."
"So the woman acts as the intermediary."
"Intermediary?"
"If you can't absorb mana directly from the talisman, use a woman as the vessel."
"What do you mean...?"
"It's not unheard of. Some sorceries fuse tons of mana crystals into one monster, then killing it yields massive exp."
"Really?"
If true, it'd be a game-changer. But if it were that easy, hunters' exp grinding would've revolutionized. The catch: activating it was insanely hard, limited to elites.
"Same principle. Make a woman the vessel, then you have skinship with her to acquire the new mana."
A-jin said it matter-of-factly. If one of my three lovers—or the newly affected Jo A-young—took the role, it'd simplify things.
"But hunters can't be vessels. Their innate mana would clash with the new influx."
"Then it's impossible after all."
"Not necessarily."
A-jin continued,
"Think about it. If you could steadily absorb other hunters' mana—like Park Hyun-jun's—it'd massively boost your growth. You might even gain their skills via the mana. I believe your rapid growth is crucial. Seol-bi, Eun-bi, and I can help, but you hold the highest potential. No hunter in the world matches it. Mastering this sorcery opens an infinite growth path."
"Mm... but we need a vessel, right?"
The term "vessel" felt off because it meant a human woman. And since hunters were out, an ordinary woman. Simply put: add one more to my existing three plus A-young.
'A-jin really has an open mind.'
Kim Seol-bi or Kim Eun-bi would've recoiled. But A-jin focused solely on the sorcery's success and my potential. She seemed 100% sincere about ten or a hundred women being fine.
"It's beyond my power alone."
With resolve, she added,
"My master is in Brazil. I should contact her."
"Brazil?"
Did we need to reach out that far? It hit me again: A-jin was dead serious about my growth.